BBC News: Chinese regulators throw spanner in Tesla's works

[Drew57]

Chinese regulators throw spanner in Tesla's works

Five Chinese regulators have summoned Tesla over quality and safety issues as it ramps up production of its Model Y in its Shanghai factory.

China is Tesla's largest market after the US and the electric carmaker sold 120,000 units there in 2020.

Authorities have recently received complaints about abnormal acceleration and battery fires, according to a statement released on Monday.

Tesla said it will strengthened self-inspection and its internal management......

.....timing couldn't be worse for the world's most valuable car company as it faces growing competition from Chinese rivals.

Chinese electric-vehicle startup NIO unveiled a fourth production model last month while Li Auto and XPeng have new models in production.

 

[Yev000]

How to write an article without any links to sources or relevant factual information.

Here is the actual statement

市场监管总局等五部门约谈特斯拉公司

"近日，市场监管总局与中央网信办、工业和信息化部、交通运输部以及应急管理部消防救援局，就消费者反映的异常加速、电池起火、车辆远程升级（OTA）等问题共同约谈了特斯拉汽车（北京）有限公司、特斯拉（上海）有限公司，要求其严格遵守中国法律法规，加强内部管理，落实企业质量安全主体责任，有效维护社会公共安全，切实保护消费者合法权益。"

Translates to

"
Recently, the General Administration of Market Supervision and the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the Fire Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management have jointly held talks on the abnormal acceleration of consumer feedback, battery fires, and remote vehicle upgrades (OTA). Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. are required to strictly abide by Chinese laws and regulations, strengthen internal management, implement the main responsibility of corporate quality and safety, effectively maintain social public safety, and effectively protect consumers legally rights and interests."

So, Tesla were not "summoned". Regulators held talks and told Tesla that they are required to follow laws (big surprise) and improve their quality and safety.

No recalls, no fines, no "wrench". A slap on the wrist at best.

 

[justinhow]

Musk recently said in an interview (with Sandy Munro

) that it was difficult to keep quality whilst ramping up fast.
The trouble with this is surely Tesla will be ramping up fast continually for the next 10 years as EV sales seriously take off.

 

[Yev000]

Musk recently said in an interview (with Sandy Munro

) that it was difficult to keep quality whilst ramping up fast.
The trouble with this is surely Tesla will be ramping up fast continually for the next 10 years as EV sales seriously take off.

Not really....

A "ramp" in this context means getting a production line going from zero to a large number of units and figuring out things along the way. Once a production line has fully ramped at a given factory there are fewer quality issues.

For instance, Berlin will ramp a model 3 line with rear casting and structural battery pack, that line will be different to the Fremont Model 3 line which made all the Model 3s we drive.

On top of this, the gigacastings should improve the trim as it will be coming out close to perfect every time. Most of the quality issues now is due to incosistent body frame (welding causing body panels to have slightly different allignment on every car)

 

[justinhow]

Musk recently said in an interview (with Sandy Munro

) that it was difficult to keep quality whilst ramping up fast.
The trouble with this is surely Tesla will be ramping up fast continually for the next 10 years as EV sales seriously take off.

Well the BBC is not the only ones saying Tesla were "summoned", WSJ, Techcrunch and Al Jazeera are all using very similar language and lets face it you don't say no when Chinese government officials ask for a meeting.

 

[KennethS]

Tesla is a disrupter and a magnet for negative press. But some of the FUD that gets tossed around is simply unfair. I can understand why Musk told Munro in the interview that they need to be very careful with how the FSD beta gets released whilst it is a work in progress. The press seems to want to find problems to shout out, and I imagine other auto manufacturers (who have huge ad budgets whilst Tesla refuses to run paid advertisements) would love to see Tesla's self driving features slammed in the press.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Well the BBC is not the only ones saying Tesla were "summoned", WSJ, Techcrunch and Al Jazeera are all using very similar language and lets face it you don't say no when Chinese government officials ask for a meeting.

You don't say no when any regulator asks for a meeting. So, like a court summons, you could say they are summoned. But just because they are summoned, you don't then know how serious it is.

But journalists like to use the word, because it implies something serious. It probably appeared on all articles because it all came from the same source. It is China after all. There is no free press.

 

[nxsynjs]

Since when has the modern media ever really bothered about such trivial things as facts, checking sources and asking "what is the message this story will send"...

Drives me bonkers.. I blame the 24X7 news cycle. There isn't enough proper news to fill every hour of every day, so they fill it with opinion and speculation which then somehow becomes fact which eventually turns into policy..

<jumps off soap box>

 

[justinhow]

Not really....

A "ramp" in this context means getting a production line going from zero to a large number of units and figuring out things along the way. Once a production line has fully ramped at a given factory there are fewer quality issues....

As I understand it there is a shipment from China in soon and I will be interested to see what the owners thinks of the quality.
I am seriously considering a Tesla M3LR but am a little concerned about quality as I am nearly a 2 hour drive from the nearest Tesla SC (Edinburgh).

 

[Zakalwe]

Since when has the modern media ever really bothered about such trivial things as facts, checking sources and asking "what is the message this story will send"...

Drives me bonkers.. I blame the 24X7 news cycle. There isn't enough proper news to fill every hour of every day, so they fill it with opinion and speculation which then somehow becomes fact which eventually turns into policy..

<jumps off soap box>

Many news services are little more than infotainment. The BBC, in particular, is guilty of this.

 

[ACarneiro]

Well the BBC is not the only ones saying Tesla were "summoned", WSJ, Techcrunch and Al Jazeera are all using very similar language

These days they all may just have mindlessly republished the same whatever source they got the info from. There is no more critical criteria in publishing in the media and to think otherwise is naive.

 

[init6]

As I understand it there is a shipment from China in soon and I will be interested to see what the owners thinks of the quality.
I am seriously considering a Tesla M3LR but am a little concerned about quality as I am nearly a 2 hour drive from the nearest Tesla SC (Edinburgh).

They are meant to be opening one in Glasgow soon - so a little closer. And there is always the mobile engineers.

 

[Yev000]

whatever source they got the info from

Copy/paste the article headline into Google, you get bloomburg, who got it from that one stament I linked above...

This is a lesson about how to make a massive article about 2 poorly traslated chinese scentences.

Honestly, BBC should do better.... At least dont plagiarise

 

[phil4]

Honestly, BBC should do better.... At least dont plagiarise

Unfortunately that's pretty much how the press and news work these days... company A issues a press release, and all the news outlets or magazines will write an article which is pretty much that press release.

You can spot it, just like this... pick a standout phrase in it, and watch that be repeated in all the articles.

It's lazy, and basically means we're just being handed a companies press release, but being lead to believe it's written by experienced journos and published under the banner of a well known publishing house.

If ever you read anything in the news or press just wonder who/why am I reading this - who is wrote it, or who wants me to see it... there will more often than not be a company behind it.

 

[Yev000]

Unfortunately that's pretty much how the press and news work these days... company A issues a press release, and all the news outlets or magazines will write an article which is pretty much that press release.

You can spot it, just like this... pick a standout phrase in it, and watch that be repeated in all the articles.

It's lazy, and basically means we're just being handed a companies press release, but being lead to believe it's written by experienced journos and published under the banner of a well known publishing house.

If ever you read anything in the news or press just wonder who/why am I reading this - who is wrote it, or who wants me to see it... there will more often than not be a company behind it.

Except with Tesla it goes like this:

1. company/regulator/licesing body issues a press release
2. Bloomburg writes "Tesla is DOOMED" without actually quoting the release because that would be too boring
3. Everyone else, including apparently the BBC copy/paste the article to sells their clicks too

I am still genuenly impressed by how someone can write an entire opinion piece based on one or two scentences and sell it as "news".